Month: March 2015

Blog Hop: Judging a Book By Its…Title

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop4 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you think a book’s title is important?

A book’s title is possibly THE important thing for me.  I pick up some books by way of word of mouth, and in that case it will usually be a friend telling me something about the story (and why I should love it). And I read a fair number of books because I’ve read the author before and want to see what else they’ve written.

But a lot of the books I read?  Either I click on a book review, or I pull a book off a shelf.  And in either case, whether it’s a post title or the spine of the book, the first thing I have to go on is the title.

The funny thing is, with a few exceptions (The True Meaning of Smekday or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland come to mind), the title doesn’t stay all that important to me.  I wouldn’t say that I particularly love the titles of most of the books I particularly love.  But there has to be something about the title that caught my eye to begin with!

Do titles make a big difference in what you read?  Or do you find books in a way (word of mouth, for example) that makes the title less important?

The Martian by Andy Weir

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction2 Comments

Digging through my pile of exciting books, one of the first I finished was The Martian by Andy Weir.  It was a good read–not as exciting as I hoped–but I can see how it could be a really great read…for someone else.  Someone with a bit more interest in science than I have!

Set in the near-future, the title character is Mark Watney, an American astronaut left behind on Mars when his team has to make an emergency evacuation.  The rest of the crew believes he’s already dead–but Watney survives, and now faces the challenge of surviving alone on Mars until the next schedules mission…four years away.  Luckily, most of the supplies for the mission were left behind, but it’s still a struggle for food, water and air.  Meanwhile on Earth, satellite images soon alert NASA to the mistake made, and the whole planet rallies around how to rescue the stranded astronaut.

In a lot of ways, this book reminds me of Hatchet, essentially the story of a castaway surviving alone.  That comparison feels like a helpful framework for addressing what I did and didn’t like about this book. Continue reading “The Martian by Andy Weir” →

Book Review: Smek for President

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews, Science Fiction1 Comment

I reread The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex recently, which is so delightful and funny and surprisingly meaningful.  It made me very excited to jump into the recently-published sequel, Smek for President.  Which was a bit less meaningful, but still funny and delightful.

The sequel picks up two years after the first book.  The world has settled back into normalcy after being invaded by aliens (twice) and Gratuity “Tip” Tucci is trying to get used to being a normal kid again, after being on her own for six months when her mother was abducted, and then saving the world.  J.Lo (the alien Boov, not the singer), who Tip met and befriended in the first book, is living with Tip and her mother but trying to cope with being the only alien left among all these humans.  Worse, the other Boovs blame J.Lo for accidentally summoning enemy aliens, who ultimately led to their loss of control over the Earth.

Tip and J.Lo set off together to the new Boov world, one of the moons of Saturn.  J.Lo wants to set his case before the great Boov leader Smek, and Tip wants to rebel against her mother.  They find the Boovs engaged in their first presidential election, and more interested in arresting J.Lo than in hearing his story.  Hijinks, naturally, ensue. Continue reading “Book Review: Smek for President” →